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Dead Man Walking A question that lingered in my mind after watching Dead Man Walking was, ‘Is it morally just to put a criminal to death in retribution for their crime?’ After watching this movie and reading the article Living and Dying on Death Row: An Eyewitness Account, I believe it is definitely an unjust and inhumane act. It is definitely not living out the word of God, who tells us “Thou shall not kill,” and to “turn the other cheek”. By executing someone in order to find gratification for the crime that person committed, we are acting no less cruel and evil than the perpetrator did when he/she committed the crime. Matthew Poncelet was a convicted killer who raped a teenage girl and killed her boyfriend. Anyone knowing the crime he committed would quickly judge him as a horrible and cruel animal. However, Sister Helen looked beyond his mistakes and imperfections, and treated him like a regular person. She showed respect to him by writing him letters, visiting him in jail, treating him like a person and not a killer, finding him a lawyer, and agreeing to be his spiritual advisor. I think by treating him with the respect she did, it helped him take responsibility for the crime he committed, which led hi